Alamo Colleges District

Bexar CountyDowntown San AntonioEst. 1945

Serving the Bexar County community through its programs and services that help students succeed in acquiring the knowledge and skills needed in today's world. Today, five colleges fulfill this promise with a vast array of courses and 2-year degrees.

Many of the college's employees traveled to attend the event, following Alamo Colleges District District Support Operations (2016), Alamo Colleges District - Northwest Vista College (2007) and Alamo Colleges District - Palo Alto College (2015), as postsecondary education institutions that also have received this very prestigious award.

Part of this journey includes the Texas Award for Performance Excellence (TAPE) where St. Philip's College announced in April the institution had received the highly significant 2018 Texas Award for Performance Excellence, one of only two Texas recipient organizations this year.

Dr. Adena Williams Loston is president of St. Philip's College.

"Thank you to all St. Philip's College employees for hard work, dedication and performance excellence, and our sister college and District Support Operations for support and encouragement," said Loston. "This award has been a journey. I have a great deal of pride that this award came along during our 120th year," Loston said.

"The TAPE Award takes six-to-10 years to achieve," said Loston. "We have systematically built our organizational effectiveness and narrowed our focus. We went through several cycles of learning and strategic planning to hone in on our core competencies - quality instruction, student engagement and community engagement," Loston said.

"We went back to basics - telling our story and highlighting our core strengths," said Loston. "We are one of two organizations in the state to achieve this award in 2018," Loston said.

In January, administration at the college extended its gratitude to employees for their participation and cooperation during a site visit with examiners from Quality Texas that was part of the journey to the award. The completion of that visit brought the St. Philip's College team one step closer to potentially being awarded a Texas Award for Performance Excellence. Employee participation and collaboration was a testament to the culture and community at St. Philip's College. Many faculty and/or staff who survey the college's customers or stakeholders completed an internal survey that provided data in support of the project. The purpose of this internal survey instrument was to gather information about internal processes among St. Philip's College's customers and stakeholders.

The college submitted its application for the TAPE in October of 2017, and joined the entire Alamo Colleges District system in applying for a National Baldrige Award in May of 2017.

The TAPE award affirms to St. Philip's College the institution, its stakeholders, taxpayers, students and employers that the 120-year-old college is one of the top performing, most efficient organizations in Texas, and among the most effective in the nation. The tax and tuition dollars invested in St. Philip's College are wisely spent and managed, and St. Philip's College performance standards are among the most rigorous in the post-secondary education industry. The college's communities can be satisfied in the continuously improving outcomes in student degrees awarded, students' preparation for the workforce and community leadership and the effectiveness of business unit operations in the multi-campus institution.

A celebration for employee attention to responsible and accountable performance took place May 2 in the Bowden Alumni Center of the college's G. J. Sutton Learning Center building at 1801 Martin Luther King Drive in the City's Denver Heights neighborhood. The college leadership team expressed gratefulness to employees for their contributions and dedication to achieving record numbers of degrees and certificates awarded among the bevy of remarkable achievements and activities underway, all necessary to achieve both the TAPE and the Baldrige Award while building a high performance organization. The college celebration following the award takes place June 27 at 2 p.m. in the Bowden Alumni Center, and guests can reflect as they view the plaque that accompanies and commemorates the TAPE award for excellence earned by St. Philip's College.